Sticking my toes back in the water

Well, the book is basically finished.

Other than finalizing the cover, I think everything is ready to go to the press. In fact, I plan on releasing a version for Amazon’s Kindle next Tuesday – Dec. 1. So if you have a Kindle, or their desktop software, you’ll be able to purchase a copy of the book directly from Amazon for $8.99.

As for the paperback version, I’m still waiting to finalize the cover and then I’ll finish sending all the necessary files to the printer and order my proof copy (hopefully this weekend). I’m not sure how fast their turn around is, but I’m hoping to have the book available for order by Dec 8 or 15th.

And with the finalizations of the book, a huge sigh has been heard coming from my direction and I’ve begun to stick my toes back in the social networking waters – and starting to blog again. (I plan on getting back to my regular weekday schedule starting next Monday.)

I started out just skimming the surface late Monday night and then started interacting a bit more yesterday and today.

I have to say, the three week long siesta was nice. I’m sure I’ll do it again.

It was nice to avoid the noise, distractions and silliness that sometimes takes place online.

But at the same time I missed hearing from and about many of my friends.

The first day at work was pretty hard. Several times I felt like I was getting the addict’s itch. I wanted to cheat and check on Twitter or Facebook but kept focused on what I was doing and overcame the urge.

It was odd getting in the car, Nov. 5, and finding out that a gunman had killed 13 people at Ft. Hood via NPR. Not that it’s unusual for NPR to cover the story but thanks to Twitter I usually know about big news events a lot sooner than others because of Twitter (i.e. The plane landing in the Hudson and Michael Jackson’s death). Word just spreads a lot faster on Twitter than other methods.

It was also a little odd missing out on some of the other news I’d normally see on Twitter, like the start of the new missional Transform Network, headed up by Steve Knight and the fact that First Baptist Church in Dallas plans to spend $130 million to build a sanctuary roughly 1,000 seats more than what they have, a new educational building and a new parking lot.

Did I need to know those things right away? Nope. Did it hurt that I was late to the party on those events? Nope. I found out via e-mail or other means.

I also realized how conditioned people are to communicating through their preferred methods. For those I usually communicate with via Twitter or Facebook, it seemed harder to get responses from them via e-mail. Perhaps I’ve just become accustomed to instant feedback via these methods, versus the slower response time usually associated with e-mail.

It seems that in using Twitter, Facebook and other social media, we/I get the urge and often “need” to be the first to know and need to know right away. We/I need to know what’s happening with everyone right away.

I think a lot of that stems from our need to feel connected with the world around us. In our day to day lives, we’re simply become disconnected. Sitting alone in a cubicle all day doesn’t help — and social media becomes my connection point to the rest of the world. It becomes an extension of my tribe.

And for me, once I get home it’s a lot easier to tune all the social media and Internet stuff out because there’s someone there wanting to make a connection with me. I don’t feel the disconnect I might feel during the typical work day.

I imagine I’ll write more about this as the days go by but for now I’m back and ready to sell some books! So check out the website, follow the news on Twitter (@stpetersbrew) and get ready to buy lots of books for your friends and family for Christmas…. (is that odd coming from someone who’s a huge supporter/fan of the Advent Conspiracy? ;-))

Welcome to my world. I hope you enjoy the ride.

P.S. Thanks to my friends and who took the time during my social media break to check in with me by other means. You know who you are. All those “traditional” means of communication like phone calls, e-mail, Skype, instant messenger and txt messages still work great!